This invention concerns windows for automotive vehicles. Modern vehicles often include fixed glass glazing panels which are fixedly mounted in a window in the body structure by an adhesive bonding. This joint must be masked to protect the adhesive from UV radiation in sunlight, and also to conceal the joint details for aesthetic reasons.
A painted or imprinted black out band extending about the window perimeter has been widely employed to provide such masking, as it blocks any penetration by UV light to protect the adhesive from degeneration due to UV exposure. Such black out border has also included a xe2x80x9cfade outxe2x80x9d treatment adjacent the solid border to further improve the aesthetic appeal of the masking.
Such masking border treatment has also been employed on movable flip out windows, which mate with an elastomeric seal.
It has long been proposed to provide molded plastic window panels for automotive glazing applications since reduced weight, improved safety and greater design freedom can be achieved. The development of durable hard coating technology has made the use of molded plastics such as polycarbonate practical for use in automotive window panels.
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved process for providing a masking border treatment for such automotive window panels constructed of molded plastic glazing.
The above object and others which will become apparent upon a reading of the following specification and claims are achieved by providing a masking treatment comprised of a translucent texturized surface extending around the perimeter of a molded plastic glazing panel by texturizing the corresponding mold surface areas. The texture distorts light passing through the masking border sufficiently so that this texturizing is created viewing anything overlain by the border is prevented, and thus effectively masked from view. The texturizing of the mold surface creates a surface appearance such as by etching or sand blasting. The texturing may be either fine grained to produce a frosting or more coarsely grained as long as it sufficiently distorts the light transmitted therethrough to render unviewable the details of any structure overlain by the masking border.
A plastic such as polycarbonate is preferably employed to mold the window panel, which material blocks UV light transmission through the translucent border to protect an adhesive used to mount the window panel in the body structure.
The remaining main section of the panel has smooth surface (produced by polished mold surfaces) to provide an optically true quality in which a clear view therethrough is obtained.
A fade out treatment is provided by a pattern of spaced apart small areas of texturizing, the areas of decreasing size with increasing distances from the solid band of texturizing.
A logo or other legend may be generated by the same texturizing process either within the border or adjacent thereto.